1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for managing a panel of objects such as keys.
In a great many fields of activity, a large number of keys must be handled. This is so particularly for collecting the interchangeable and removable coin boxes from a network of service vending machines, for telephone calls (public telephone sets), parking durations (parking meters) or games (pin-ball machines), or item vending machines for photocopies, transport tickets or confectionary items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The task of collecting the coin-boxes is split into rounds, each ascribed to a collector. The collection rounds are established in terms of various parameters which cover especially:
number and geographical spread of the vending machines; PA1 rapidity with which the coin boxes are filled; PA1 time required to withdraw each coin box filled with receipts and replacing the filled box with an empty coin box in an access compartment locked by key and designed therefor in the vending machine; PA1 safety of the receipts collected particularly when transporting the coin-boxes between the vending machines and the coin-box management center.
These various parameters are mutually independent and give rise to collection rounds that differ from one day to the next and to the fact that each collection round must not be carried out by the same person two days running at least.
The outcome of these considerations is the problem of managing the keys in the coin-box access compartments of the vending machines. Great care must be taken every day to put the keys back in place in readiness for use the following day in a strict order when composing the bunches of keys issued to each collector entrusted with a collection round. The allocation of keys to the rounds and hence to the collectors must give no cause for error so that a "fraudulent" collector may be unmasked should the receipts collected in a coin-box turn out to be abnormally low for example.
At the current time, use is quite simply made of a straightforward wall-mounted key panel sporting nails or hook from each of which a key is hung. Labels carrying the key numbers corresponding to the numbers of the vending machines are affixed to the panel above the nails. On other known panels, the nails are replaced by compartments inside each of which a key is to be placed. When making up a bunch of keys, an operator in the management center reads the key numbers for each bunch so that the collector may successfully pick out the keys. To ease key selection, the space between the nails or compartments must be large; as a result, the dimensions of the panel are very large, thereby making it difficult for the operator to run a quick and accurate check of the taken keys.
In a further known embodiment of a key panel divulged in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,328, each nail is replaced by an opening through which is passed a holding member from which the respective key hangs. The holding number is caught by gravity in the opening to activate a reed switch via a permanent magnet rod attached to the holding member. A lamp is activated by the reed switch closing in response to the presence of the permanent magnet to indicate that the key is hanging on the panel.
Moreover, systems are known that aid in managing items, pharmaceutical products for example, for dispensing purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,800 describes a system for selecting items to be distributed throughout the cubby holes of a stock cart. A computer and a memory are provided to read data sequences, such as the location of cubby holes, thereby turning on light distribution indicators which show the operator the specific item quantities to be picked in the cubby holes. However, after having withdrawn items from a given cubby hole, the operator must press an "Index" button which causes the information for the next cubby hole to be indicated.
The article by H. C. NOMANN titled "AUTOMATIC COMPUTER INPUT OF INVENTORY COUNTS" published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 1, page 299, June 1978, New York, describes an assemblage of force sensors to measure the weight in each of a series of bins. The sensors are each assigned to a bin or tray and are linked to an inventory control system making it possible to monitor and record the weight of the items placed in each bin. The control system only provides information as to whether or not there are items in the bins.